I'm Missile Dog

My mom is the worst. Just schrecklich!

Here I was, being real photogenic and getting some great photos at the event the weekend before last, and she's been too lazy to edit my nice pictures and show them off on my blog! Bad mom! She says she's been busy. Working. Mom is a graphic designer and illustrator in her "day" job, which means she spends a load of time on the computer drawing and coloring pictures and laying out websites. I'm not sure just how much she gets done with that Internet connection on her computer and all ... but there you have it. Busy! Too busy to edit meine pictures!

So, anyway ...

The weekend before last was a long weekend for mom and dad because of Veterans Day. On Saturday, we drove to Norfolk to the MacArthur Memorial for the living history event there, Military through the Ages.

Mom and Dad wore their old uniforms and brought the big display on "Military Working Dogs, World War II through Today" to tell people all about pups like me who work for the military, and what we do to help human soldiers. Their display talks about the different kinds of jobs military dogs have, about how the working dog program got started, and so on. There's lots of stuff, too, from dog equipment to manuals, to books about working dogs, for people to see and check out. It's really a very neat display and people like reading the display boards and looking at the original items mom and dad have collected. The people like petting me much better than all the rest of the display, of course, because I'm just adorable.

Mom's least favorite person showed up to the event, too. There's a fellow who comes out to all these events in our area and mom's friends call him The Thing Who Wouldn't Shut Up because he talks a lot. Like, really a lot. Without pause. But he likes me. He calls me German Shepherd Puppy Girl and scratches my head. That's cool with me.

Unfortunately, we had a ton of rain and the event got called early. So mom and dad decided to stop by a place called Air Power Park on the way home, which is right by Langley Air Force Base. I liked the park a lot because we were the only people there and I got to run around off leash and get myself all wet and muddy. It was a lot of fun.

Daddy was wearing the old uniform he has that is that of a Cold War era (late 1950's/early 1960's) guard dog handler assigned to a Nike missile site. Nike missiles were a kind of defense missile the military had during the Cold War, in case the Russians were going to drop "the bomb". The park had some of those missiles, and daddy and I posed with some of them. It was pretty cool.

Daddy made me bark and look all vicious for the camera, and I had a really good time doing that. Don't I look scary? I bet you'd think twice about coming near me if you saw me like that!


Here are daddy and I with a Nike Ajax missile that is on the launcher. Daddy thought that was really neat because, he says, you never see them on the launchers. He was mad that vandals have come and stripped a lot of stuff of the items that are on display out there, though. They should have me there over night. I'd keep the vandals away!


There are a lot of planes at the park, too, and mom made me pose on the wing of an F-4 Phantom. Mom's uncle used to work on these as an Air Force electrician. She had to lift me up onto the wing so I could get up. I was shocked at how high up in the air I was. "Oh my goodness!" I said "It's so high up!"


Once I got settled in and comfortable, mom got some really nice shots of me up there, though, and she says that I was totally posing. As if. I'm just naturally photogenic, danke vielmals! Not like those girls on America's Next Top Model, who have to be told how to pose and where to look all the time just to get a good picture! See - I should be America's Next Canine Top Model!



And here's a shot of me pretending to be a big mean mountain lion who's going to pounce on daddy. Mom says there's a comic called Snoopy, which is about a Beagle (like my Beagle buddy Snoopy!) who likes to pretend he's other things - like a mountain lion. She seems to think those comics are pretty funny. Me, I don't get the joke. What's so funny about being a big, mean mountain lion, anyway?